A growing coalition of African scientists is mounting a coordinated push to strip legacy pathogens of their geographical identifiers, arguing that place-based names for deadly viruses inflict lasting economic damage on communities.
The campaign gained momentum after the World Health Organisation dedicated the 2026 outbreak of Bundibugyo ebola as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.
The virus affected both Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo).
The virus, which can kill up to 50 percent of infected people, is named after Bundibugyo, a cocoa-growing district in Western Uganda, at the foot of the Rwenzori Mountains. Although Uganda declared its outbreak over in July, some foreign travel advisories remain in place, while cases continue in neighbouring DR Congo.
“People of Bundibugyo feel stigmatised when they go somewhere with the disease,” the Health Minister, Dr Chris Baryomunsi, said at the weekend.
No infections have been reported in Bundibugyo during the latest outbreak. The virus was first isolated in the district during the 2007 outbreak, when scientists identified a genetically distinct Ebola strain.
Jean Kaseya, director general of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), said the concern had reached the highest levels of governance.
“It’s a concern we are hearing from the scientific world; we speak about it to avoid the stigma,” he said, adding: “I was told today by the vice president that there is someone from Bundibugyo who reacted to this.”
He added that discussions were underway with international scientific bodies to explore renaming pathogens that carry geographical labels.
“This is an ongoing conversation we have with the scientific community in the world to see how to approach that, especially as we know that some countries refused to be named after Covid-19,” he said.
How virus naming evolved
Prof Pontiano Kaleebu, director of the Uganda Virus Research Institute (UVRI), said the naming of viruses has long been debated because of its potential to stigmatise communities.
“So the name Bundibugyo, why is it called Bundibugyo? At one time, the naming/creation of viruses had decided to stop using these names which tend to profile, label countries and regional areas. But this still continues,” he said.
“We have Ebola Sudan, we have Ebola Zaire, now we have Ebola Bundibugyo. As you know, this virus was first described in the area of Bundibugyo, and the name was given so.”
Prof Kaleebu explained that the name Ebola itself comes from a place in what was then Zaire, near the Ebola River.
Dr Baryomunsi explained that when Ebola was first identified in 1976, different strains were named after the locations where they were detected.
“The strain in Sudan was different from the strain in Congo, Zaire as it was then,” he said.
“The one in Zaire was called Ebola Zaire. It was named after a country. Then the one in Sudan was named Ebola Sudan.”
As scientific understanding improved, naming conventions started moving away from country names to more local geographical locations.
“Now when we got the strain of Bundibugyo, it is a strain, the strain in Bundibugyo was different from the other one of Zaire and Congo. Genetically, they were different,” he said.
“So it was named Ebola Bundibugyo. And we had earlier discussed that the people of Bundibugyo feel stigmatised when they get associated with the disease.”
Bundibugyo Ebola virus has caused three known outbreaks: in Uganda in 2007, in DR Congo in 2012, and in 2020.
BACKGROUND
In 2022, the World Health Organisation (WHO) adopted mpox as the preferred name for monkeypox to reduce racist, stigmatising, and misleading language.
The case for renaming
Prof Kaleebu said scientists are exploring how to address both existing virus names and those that may be assigned in the future.
“Change of names has been done, and for some viruses that were a little bit too stigmatising, the change was made,” he said.
“There are some viruses where a change was made, but I think there is more concern when you become a little bit more specific to a group, and that is being addressed. For this one of Bundibugyo and the rest, it’s also being addressed.”
He said virus names are assigned by international experts through a formal scientific process.
“We have what we call the nomenclature group,” he said. “When the viruses are discovered, there is a group that comes together to give them names, and that is where it’s an international nomenclature group that names these viruses.”
According to the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV), scientists have identified more than 17,500 viruses.
Uganda’s place in virus history
Uganda has contributed significantly to global virology, with several important pathogens first identified within its borders.
Besides Bundibugyo Ebola virus, the Zika virus was discovered in the Zika Forest near Entebbe. It became globally notorious after the 2015 outbreak in Brazil was linked to microcephaly and other congenital abnormalities. The WHO later declared the Zika-related birth defects emergency a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.
West Nile virus, first isolated in Uganda’s West Nile region in 1937, remains a globally significant mosquito-borne disease capable of causing meningitis and encephalitis.
Other viruses named after Ugandan locations include Bwamba virus, Semliki Forest virus, and the Bunyamwera virus.
A broader global shift
The campaign to rename place-based pathogens reflects a wider change in global health communication.
In 2021, the WHO introduced the name Omicron for the coronavirus variant first reported from South Africa.
The agency said many people had begun referring to it as the “South African variant,” leading to stigma and economic consequences.
“As a result, people often resort to calling variants by the places where they are detected, which is stigmatising and discriminatory,” the WHO said.
“To avoid this and to simplify public communications, WHO encourages national authorities, media outlets, and others to adopt these new labels.”